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Trying some compost tea
- Thread starter Proud Marine Dad
- Start date
Anybody know if you can take your bag of goodies from one brew (after it is done) and make another batch with it?
I'm gonna be spraying daily due to this tropical clusterf&@$k that's gonna dump some serious rain through Thursday. I think I may just find the bonide citrus fruit an nut spray and daily spray until the rain subsides.
I'm gonna be spraying daily due to this tropical clusterf&@$k that's gonna dump some serious rain through Thursday. I think I may just find the bonide citrus fruit an nut spray and daily spray until the rain subsides.
What kind of advice do you guys have for brewing smaller batches? Like 1.5 gallons.
Just use a smaller container but keep the same amount of air used as you would making 5 gallons, just the other day i made 50 gallons and talk about over kill, i only used maybe 20 gallons for 120 plants and ended up dumping the rest of the tea on the compost pile but the main thing i would say is lots of air regardless of the amount, i was using a 450L/min 520W magnetic air pump doing the 50 gal but the mess afterwards was a nightmare so for sure i am going to use a smaller container, like a 30 gal container.
For just 1.5 gallons you shouldn't need more then a Cup of organic material and very little feed for the micros.
Just my opinion, it is going to be just as much work or more to make a small batch as it is a big one. Is it a space thing? Or do you just not have that many plants to dose? You could definitely do it in a smaller bucket with the same equipment....
+1 on fishing4fun2 about air....got to use a good amount to aerate the brew.
+1 on fishing4fun2 about air....got to use a good amount to aerate the brew.
Also if your doing a small batch or really any batch try to keep your water temp at around 65-70 Degrees F.
With summer being here i ended up doing mine in the basement of the house which wasn't bad at all smell wise but hard work making several trips upstairs and outside with the tea.
I got a cheap microscope so i could view what was going on but have no slides to try it yet.
A good Microscope and a guy to view what was going on and what he has in his tea thats what i would like to try some day.
With summer being here i ended up doing mine in the basement of the house which wasn't bad at all smell wise but hard work making several trips upstairs and outside with the tea.
From what i have read the medium is pretty much done after 12 - 16 hours but not real sure about that either because after i was done i put the 16 air stones in a clean 20 gal bucket with 5 gallons of water and Hydrogen peroxide to clean the stones etc and with in 15 min or so i had what looked to be another batch of tea brewing with the foam etc..
I got a cheap microscope so i could view what was going on but have no slides to try it yet.
A good Microscope and a guy to view what was going on and what he has in his tea thats what i would like to try some day.
Pffffff!Not very "organic" though.
This guy ^^^ Who do you think I am Ras Trent? RASTAFARIANISM! JAH MON! BWHAHA
I do my part, but there is always room for improvement. You know what Jah mean? BRB I got to go put on some Patchouli
When I have a little more money that isn't going toward pull-ups and gold fish crackers I'll go buy some Black Strap 100% OG!
From what I hear, yes you can. I have heard up to 3 times from Praxxus on Youtube, but who actually knows?
An air kit for a 25g fish tank and a tote from Wal-Mart, for a grand total of under 20$
Pffffff!
This guy ^^^ Who do you think I am Ras Trent? RASTAFARIANISM! JAH MON! BWHAHA
I do my part, but there is always room for improvement. You know what Jah mean? BRB I got to go put on some Patchouli
When I have a little more money that isn't going toward pull-ups and gold fish crackers I'll go buy some Black Strap 100% OG!
From what I hear, yes you can. I have heard up to 3 times from Praxxus on Youtube, but who actually knows?
JAH! RasTrent...I bet you reply to posts wearing roller skates and play your DVD of "Cool Runnings" in the background....haha.
As for making subsequent batches off the same bags of ingredients....it looks like this one is falling flat. Added the old "goodie" bags to new chlorine free water yesterday and added molasses and myco - today, not as much as a lasting bubble, much less, head. Im gonna let it go for another day, but it looks like it may be destined for lawn spray.
Damn storm broke the main stem of one of my 7 pot yellows last night....Jah! But at least it broke off the disfigured aphid damage....bah,duh,dingdingding!
After the 2 hydrogen peroxide baths and the AACT foliar spraying, most of the plants look pretty good. Still seeing some leaf spot and some yellowing leaves, but the truth will come out after this rain passes through....maybe the tea will be ready to spray by then.
Hey Carvin, thanks for the input. Im gonna tone down on the molasses.
If it was drier right now I wouldn't even be worried....but with the explosion I had the last two weeks....and this current profound humidity and wet weather...I question just how much of my AACT biofilm remains and how much bad bacterial leaf spot bacteria remains....I'm not gonna do anything until I see how this weather effects them.
I have what may sound like a dumb question. When you make the tea do you stick the compost in a pillow case or some kind of bag and hang it in the bucket to bubble away... or do you just chuck it all in the water and then strain it into the sprayer later?
Also do you think it'd work with compost in a bag that you bought from a store? I've been thinking of making some compost tea for a while but haven't been able to get my compost bin going. Just started a new one and its building up so this season maybe it'll come good.
Also do you think it'd work with compost in a bag that you bought from a store? I've been thinking of making some compost tea for a while but haven't been able to get my compost bin going. Just started a new one and its building up so this season maybe it'll come good.
Yeah, definitely put it in a muslin bag, pillow case, old t shirt, painters bag, just something to hold all the larger particles so that you don't have as difficult a time filtering it, but also, this allows you to suspend your goodies in the bag an allows the bubbles to come up and agitate the compost, guano, etc. This agitation is really the key to getting a good tea going.
As far as bagged compost - use what you can get...I have and I still get thick billowing heads out it. I would really utilize worm castings in your tea along with the addition of other composts.
As far as bagged compost - use what you can get...I have and I still get thick billowing heads out it. I would really utilize worm castings in your tea along with the addition of other composts.
I put it straight in as some say that if the bag the compost is in has too fine of a mesh it can keep some of the beneficial bacteria out of the tea.
It's no big deal pouring it straight in. When it's done I pour it through an old plastic pot that has a piece of screen door material in the bottom to filter out the big chunks.
Now I have my eye on vermiposting. God help me. 
8 hrs leftNow I have my eye on vermiposting. God help me.
JAH! bahaha
I agree with you in regards to it filtering some of the beneficial bacteria out from the medium with the use of superfine materials...but microbes are microns thick...I would think they could easily filter through cotton or canvas cloth, silk bags, tea bag material, etc. Have you seen a difference in your brewings...because this would really interest me as a possible way of potentially isolating specific strains of bacterium in your teas?
So far, I have brewed with homemade bags of muslin cloth bought from Wal-mart, pantyhose, painter's bags, Hanes white t-shirts (old ones), and cotton pillow cases...I have gotten a very aerated head with each of the bag materials, however, with that being said, without a microscopic analysis of the end tea, we have no idea what bacterium may be progressing and proliferating in the tea.
This could be a horticultural graduate student thesis project...."The effects of straining mediums on specific bacterial strains in the production of aerated compost tea"...
I have been thinking....in the foot steps of Rastrent (bah duh ding ding woahhh!)...about posting a beginners guide (with pictorials) to brewing AACT/compost tea....